She Carries

From Vermeer’s Light: Poems 1996—2006, published by Talonbooks in 2007.

She carries my chair,
she carries my walker,
she carries my commode,
she drops my heart
so hard it breaks into
a hundred pieces
and they all follow her,
in love like Jupiter in orbit.
She hands me
my crutches. I carry
my soul to her and say
here, that’s all
I got to say.
Now, at last, she says,
you have a good
attitude.